Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Successful Entrepreneur?

When you read an inspiring story of a successful entrepreneur, you will start thinking about becoming one. You may be tempted to hand in your resignation letter almost immediately. A million ideas of how you can triple your income start flowing through your mind. But it is often said that entrepreneurs are born, not made, and many successful entrepreneurs have the same set of characteristics that set them apart from the herd.

Before you take the leap, you need to ask yourself, do I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? The good news is that you can learn from other successful entrepreneurs.

You can become a successful entrepreneur if you possess or manage to acquire the following traits:

1Strong Leadership Skills

Successful entrepreneurs are good leaders. Leadership skills are necessary to direct people with different personalities to work together to accomplish one vision.

Businesses undergo ups and downs, especially in the first few years. A business owner must exemplify good leadership to his staff in times of crisis.

People look up to their leader for directions during tough times. In addition, you need strong leadership skills to solve conflicts and handle difficult clients.

2Determination

Everyone goes into business hoping to succeed and make huge amounts of money. However, the truth is that most entrepreneurs fail in their first ventures.

Unfortunately, you do not hear much about failed ventures. You must be determined to succeed as an entrepreneur no matter the challenges that you will encounter.

If your first business fails, try a new idea. You must continue giving your best to your business even if you do not realise any profits in the first few months.

3Willingness to Learn

The importance of learning daily has been outlined clearly by Tai Lopez. The entrepreneur and advisor learned from an early age that learning from successful people would make him a more successful person.

You must have a similar attitude as an entrepreneur. Be willing to read and learn from others in your field. Someone has the knowledge you need to grow your business. Tai Lopez also explains that the best source of inspiration is absorbing wisdom from mentors.

4Ability to Adapt to Change

The business environment is dynamic. Customers change their preferences and tastes. Partners change their engagement terms. Your staff will start demanding better working conditions and pay as your business grows.

Technological changes in the world will also affect your business. You must be quick to adapt to change. Explore ways of making every change work for your business. Flexibility and adaptability are necessary to remain relevant in the market.

5Networking skills

Networking and people skills are essential for any entrepreneur. Tai Lopez explains how networking is critical to success in business. He managed to use social platforms to network and expand his business and has an undying passion for telling his story and networking.

He also explains that great content is critical when creating a business network and how people are constantly on the lookout for valuable content and knowledge that can transform their lives.

Conclusion

Most successful entrepreneurs possess common traits as outlined above. You can start and succeed in business in any field if you have similar traits. If you lack one or two of the traits, you have nothing to worry about.

Honest entrepreneurs will tell you that they gained their skills and knowledge over time. Start with what you have and maintain your curiosity to learn new things every day and be determined to go past failure. Eventually, you will be named among the successful entrepreneurs in your field.

Build Solid Back-Room Basics For Business Success

South Africa has a vibrant start-up culture with great ideas starting out with a bang, but closing down with a whimper because entrepreneurs picture the glory at the destination, but not the nitty gritty of the journey to get there.

Be smart about scale

When I started out, I literally did everything myself. I negotiated and signed leases, I arranged the furnishing for our apartments and managed the interior décor process. When guests started using our apartments, I signed them in at reception, and then carried their bags.

At that stage, there was no money in my business to pay for attorneys, interior designers and decorators and there certainly wasn’t enough money for porters.

However, when we got to 70 apartments, it didn’t make sense for me to be a porter any longer, so I hired someone to do that job, explaining clearly what I expected of him. Before I did that, though, I spent time designing incentives for him so that he would be more affordable for me, and so that he could earn as much money as possible.

Know your talents – and your limitations

There are certain things I’m really good at, but I know without a doubt that sales isn’t one of them – and without sales, you don’t have a business. I couldn’t afford a top-flight salesperson, but I knew that I could attract the right talent with the right business model. I set some high targets for Pamela Niemand, but offered her one third of the business if she met them. We both won: she earned a share in a successful, trend-setting business, and my trend-setting business became successful!

Use your skills – but know when to hand over

My background in corporate finance meant that I had all the accounting skills I needed when we first started out, but I knew that the time would come when I would need someone focused on that side of the business full time. Doing it all myself first meant that I could brief my first full-time accountant clearly and with a deep understanding of what would be required – and that I could help that person find and fix any challenges based on my experience.

In summary, my simple advice to anyone starting out would be to bootstrap your business yourself without investors or staff for as long as you can, but don’t over-extend yourself. Know when to delegate tasks away so that you can focus on what you’re really good at – but don’t do it before you have a solid understanding of what’s required. Know what you’ll never be able to do, and bring in that resource from the beginning – but do it based on performance-based incentives, so that your fledgling business doesn’t lose out if your early hires don’t perform.

The Myth About The Relationship Between Entrepreneurs And Taking Risks

“I can’t be an entrepreneur or start a business. I don’t have the appetite for risk.” This line is spoken regularly to brave few that leave the perceived safety of a job, take the plunge and venture into the unknown world of being an entrepreneur. However, there is a gross misunderstanding in the appetite for risk that entrepreneurs are believed to have innately inside of them.

The little-known truth is that the majority of entrepreneurs don’t like taking risks and according to Luca Rigotti and Mathew Ryan in their paper that explores a model for quantifying risk and its translation into enterprising action, the results were very interesting.

Risk is explained by these theorists as taking action where the outcomes are unpredictable as well the factors leading to that outcome are unknown. One of the theorists in this area, Saraswati, who coined the term “tolerance for ambiguity” has a more accurate description of what the outside world deems taking a risk.

In simple terms, entrepreneurs don’t go head-first into the shark infested water because they like the idea of danger and potentially being eaten alive; or the thrill of being able to say that they survived whilst others perished in a pool of maimed flesh. They carefully calculate that the sharks have been fed recently, some of the sharks are ragged tooth sharks that whilst looking like they are set to devour a human being, are actually incapable of opening their jaws wide enough to bite. For those sharks that still have space or who smell blood and can’t resist the urge to kill, the entrepreneur has a cage set up that he can retreat into quickly and a knife with which to protect himself.

Tolerance for ambiguity is the careful evaluation of what is known at the moment where a decision must be made and an open-mindedness for what is not known. This, coupled with the agility to change course when new information is presented, has earned the label of high risk appetite. The appetite is not for the risk, but it is the ability to move down a path, when all the information is not known.

I likened it to a person moving around in the dark holding a candle. The candle casts a light that illuminates a limited parameter around the person holding the candle. What is beyond the light that the candle casts, is unknown and potentially a risk. But as the person moves forward, the light reveals what was unknown and in the shadows. As the light reveals new information and new challenges added to what they have already learnt, the person can make better informed decisions. The tolerance is in not knowing what lies in the shadows yet to be illuminated by the candle and then the confidence in his or her own ability to act on what new information is discovered.

None of this behaviour is risky or irresponsible. There is careful consideration for what is known and a tolerance for what is unknown. And once there is more information available, a calculated next step is taken and more information is assimilated into what is now known. This is the true relationship between entrepreneurs and the apparent illusion of risk.

7 Skills Every Entrepreneur Needs To Adopt Today

For some people, becoming an entrepreneur is as easy as stepping off a bus. They have a big idea, they bring it to life, they hire employees and the next thing they are in a building smothered in branding and living the business dream. For others, the idea and the passion are there but they are unsure as to how they can make these into a sustainable reality. Entrepreneurial spirit isn’t like instant coffee – you don’t add ideas and suddenly get all the skills you need to thrive.

Want to know what skills can help you build confidence and your business? Here are seven…

1. Believable vision

Make sure that your vision is believable and achievable. It has to live in the realms of possibility, not as a blue-sky idea that looks good on paper but wouldn’t work in reality. You need to be able to live this vision so make it realistic and achievable. This will not only keep you on track, but your employees as well.

2. Be inclusive

You need to ensure that every person who works with you feels as if they are part of your vision and understand it. They need to relate to where the business is going and how it plans to get there. Many leaders don’t understand why employees are not engaged with their business and it’s because many of them don’t actually understand what the business does.

3. Communication is critical

If you don’t have fantastic communication skills, then now is the time to hone them. When it comes to building employee morale, commitment and engagement, nothing works as effectively as constant communication. The same applies to client relationships. You need to repeat the vision and ethos of the company at every opportunity and you need to be part of the team that does this communication.

4. Be visible and transparent

You are communicating, now you need to make that communication genuine by being both open and clear. People respond incredibly well to transparency. They feel as if they are part of something that recognises their value and contribution and it fosters a more inclusive company culture. Often toxic cultures come about thanks to a lack of communication and visibility. People know when things are being kept secret and react negatively to it, regardless of whether they’re an employee, a customer or a manager.

5. Be practical

You aren’t going to build an empire in a fortnight so focus on a realistic and practical business strategy that has clear benchmarks and even clearer goals. Communicate these with the company and keep everybody on the same page. Practical and achievable means long-term success.

6. Build opportunities

As people become immersed in your company and part of its growth they will also need opportunities to grow. You need to tie their careers to the business and create opportunities for them.

7. Be human

It takes people to build a culture, a company and a future. It’s essential that you are human in your interactions and your treatment of others. The impact that a down to earth and authentic attitude can have on a company is extraordinary.